TheJakartaPost

Please Update your browser

Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.

Jakarta Post

Five cities to execute pilot projects for transportation

Five cities, namely Bandung in West Java, Batam in Riau Islands, Makassar in South Sulawesi, Pekanbaru in Riau and Semarang in Central Java will receive grants of 21 million euro (US$23

Riza Roidila Mufti (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Mon, October 14, 2019

Share This Article

Change Size

Five cities to execute pilot projects for transportation

F

span>Five cities, namely Bandung in West Java, Batam in Riau Islands, Makassar in South Sulawesi, Pekanbaru in Riau and Semarang in Central Java will receive grants of 21 million euro (US$23.17 billion) from the governments of Germany, Switzerland and the United Kingdom to develop Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) services in the cities.

The five cities have been selected by the Indonesian government as pilot cities to develop public transportation called SUTRI NAMA (Sustainable Urban Transport Program Indonesia) and INDOBUS (Indonesian Bus Rapid Transit Corridor Development).

“The program will be carried out in line with our commitment to reduce the use of personal vehicles, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and reduce air pollution caused by transportation,” said Transportation Ministry’s land transportation director Budi Setyadi during the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the ministry and the five regional governments on the joint pilot projects in Jakarta on Tuesday.

The SUTRI NAMA and INDOBUS projects were introduced in 2017 after the Transportation Ministry signed an initial agreement with German development cooperation agency Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), which bridges the Indonesian government and the grant providers.

The projects are intended to develop a more environmentally friendly public transportation system and support development of the BRT as well as BRT line and corridor procurement.

“Basically, in the project, we finance people, we finance activities, and that is to design the BRT system in these five cities. So, all the preparation, all the feasibility is supported by our funds,” said Remy Duiven, the counselor and the head of the Swiss Cooperation Office from the embassy of Switzerland in Jakarta.

However, the project has proven to take some time, as around two years are needed to conduct the pre-feasibility study (PFS), conduct a reality check on several prospective pilot cities as well as select five pilot cities among 25 cities across Indonesia.

After the signing of the MoU, Budi promised the projects would step into more tangible works involving the regional government in each pilot city such as preparing the detailed engineering design for each city and making a master plan for each city.

“I will ask each of the regional governments to deliver their presentation. The regional governments needs to give their plan on whether they will need a specialized bus line for the transportation system or how many corridors they need for this project,” said Budi.

GIZ’s senior governance policy adviser Zulasmi said that in 2019 the project would be focused on conducting further feasibility studies in each city, while in 2021 it would be focused on construction. The BRT services are expected to be available by 2022.

“The 21 million euro mostly will be used for conducting studies such as on how to make the BRT systems. But there are also funds allocated to infrastructure such as constructing the bus lines,” he said.

While the grant will finance the bus lines and corridor construction, the bus procurement alone will financed by the Indonesian government.

Zulasmi also said the project faced challenges at the regional level as local governments had been overwhelmed to rearrange the existing crowded routes.

“It is not as simple as it looks. For example, making new bus lines is a challenging task if the existing routes in the city are already crowded, while carrying out land procurement and route diversion is also not that easy,” said Zulasmi, adding that commitment from the regional governments to speed up the project was essential.

West Java Governor Ridwan Kamil said intervention from the central government in developing an inner city connection in Bandung was needed to boost connection. Bandung city alone, he said, needed better interconnectivity, despite its stable economic growth that almost reached 8 percent.

{

Your Opinion Counts

Your thoughts matter - share your experiences, suggestions, and any issues you've encountered on The Jakarta Post. We're here to listen.

Enter at least 30 characters
0 / 30

Thank You

Thank you for sharing your thoughts. We appreciate your feedback.